


The Morning After

by The_Clockwork_Monk



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-01 09:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2768855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Clockwork_Monk/pseuds/The_Clockwork_Monk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The morning after Zuko's bachelor party, a very hungover Gaang must retrace their steps before their antics from the previous night sparks another war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The Chase

**Prologue: The Chase**

Sokka needed to get his mind under control and think clearly. Never in all his time during the war or the four years since had he been this terrified, but fear wasn't going to help him or Toph get out of this.

"How far behind are they, Toph?"

Toph put her hand to the stone floor of the small house in the tiny mountain village in the remote south-eastern corner of the Earth Kingdom where Sokka had  _thought_  they could hide until their pursuers gave up. Apparently he had underestimated the evil that now hunted them.

"They're less than a half mile away now, and from their movements, they still have our trail," Toph whispered in a shaky voice. Apparently she was even more scared than he was.

Sokka opened up the curtains a bit and looked across the mountain river to an abandoned fishing shack.

"Okay, Toph, we're gonna cross the river. The water will cover our trail."

"You idiot, I can't swim!" she said with her I-can't-believe-you're-actually-that-stupid face, "Has it been that long since the Serpent's Pass? And remember,  _Suki_  isn't here to save me this time." She said the last while pointing an accusing finger at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I was literally a half second away from diving in! Just climb on my back and hold on tight. I'll sprint to the water and cross the river." He squatted down with his back to her. "As soon as you feel that no one is around, climb on and we'll make a break for it. We don't want any villagers seeing us and telling  _them_  which way we went."

"Okay….NOW!" She shouted as she jumped on his back and wrapped her armed around his neck.

Sokka kicked open the door and ran at a full sprint to the waterline. Once again, he was grateful that Toph had barely grown an inch since they day he met her. A part of him suspected that she somehow did it on purpose to stay closer to the earth. As his feet hit the water and Toph heard the splash, he felt her tense up in fear. He grabbed her arms around his neck and squeezed them in reassurance as he dove head first into the water. It was difficult to keep both his and Toph's heads above the surface, but he had learned to swim in the deadly waters of his home, and barely spent a day dry once they had come to the warm waters of the fire nation, so this slightly chilly river was no match for him. As he got to the opposite shore, Toph finally started breathing again, even though she had access to air on the way over.

"Quick," Sokka said putting her down and taking her hand, "into that fishing shack!"

"But it's  _wood_!" Toph shrieked, "I won't be able to see them if they're coming up on us!"

Sokka put both hands on her shoulders, "Toph, if we can't escape them now….I don't think we're going to. I think this might be the end of the line." He saw Toph swallow hard and led them into the shack.

They knelt down facing each other next to a wall and Toph embraced him in a trembling hug, "Sokka…What if they find us here?"

Sokka ran a hand down her back, most of which was now covered by her jet black, matted hair. His face made a small smile. Toph always did hate haircuts almost as much as footbaths. "Then we'll go down fighting, Toph. Like old times. Just you and me, never giving up, never surrendering."

"Sokka, if we don't make it out of this…I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I just want you to know that I….I've always—"

She was interrupted by the wall they were kneeling next to exploding inwards and them getting knocked across the room. Sokka brought his arm back to throw his boomerang, but within a split second, a long spiked tongue dashed forward and slashed across his neck. He felt his whole body go numb as he slumped to the floor. A second whiplash and Toph fell limply across Sokka's stomach. Since he couldn't move his head, Sokka couldn't look up to greet the dark-haired, darkly-dressed, tattooed woman that he knew was sitting atop the shirshu that just stung him.

"Hey Jun, how ya been?" He asked in a defeated voice.

She climbed off of Nayla and sauntered over to them so that he could see the self-satisfied smirk on her face. "Been better, to be honest. Business has been slow. Or at least it was, until I got this job of tracking you down. So thank you."

"Glad we could be of some help," Toph grunted sarcastically. Her voice was muffled since her face was smushed against the wooden floor.

And, sure enough, her two employers landed and walked over to their prey with scowls on their faces

"How can you two be so  _selfish_!?" Katara almost screamed at them in her "strict mother" tone of voice, "Zuko is our  _friend._  How can you not want to be there for him?"

"But I  _haaaaate_  weddings," he complained in a high-pitched whine, "and the fact that it's Zuko's just makes it worse, because every event in his life has to be accompanied by a five-hour-long ceremony!"

"Yeah," Toph chimed in, voice clear now since Aang had flipped her over, "I swear, the guy can't fart without a dozen fire sages there to bless the gas." Aang actually chuckled at this until a glare from his girlfriend made him shut up.

"This is what friends  _do_ , Sokka," Katara lectured with her hands on her hips, "Wouldn't you want Zuko to be there for  _your_  wedding, assuming you could find a girl in the four nations stupid enough?"

"…Okay, that was below the belt, sis."

Katara knelt down next to him and stuck a finger in his face, "You run off again, and I  _will_  be swinging below the belt. With a water whip."

She turned to Toph, grabbed her by the collar, and started dragging her back to Appa, "Come on, it's several days' flight to the Fire Nation Capital, and we still need to fix your hair and get you measured for your bridesmaid dress.

Toph's foggy eyes widened in horror, "NO! Katara, please, I'll do anything you want! I'll give you my entire inheritance! Think of all the dresses  _you_  could buy! Oh, oh, I know, I'll stop calling Aang 'Twinkle-Toes!'…for a week! Sokka, help me!"

Getting some feeling back in his neck, Sokka turned to scowl at Aang, "You traitor."

"Seriously, Sokka? You're twenty years old. Grow. Up," Aang grunted as he hefted Sokka over his shoulder, "Look on the bright side, we've still got Zuko's gopher-stag party to look forward to.

"Oh yeah, a bachelor party with Angsty McEmopants and a freakin'  _MONK_ , watch out, Fire Nation, this is gonna be a wild night."

"Oh come on, you never now, just you watch, we're gonna have fun."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sokka said with an unseen smirk as he started formulating his evil plan. He was going to have to be the one that made  _sure_  they had fun.

* * *

**I promise I'll get to the actual story advertised in the summary very shortly. This was just a scene I had knocking around my head that went well with this premise I was thinking about, so I thought I would make it a prologue. The next chapter will start in the Fire Nation Capital. I'm setting the events post-Promise, but I'm going to twerk it a bit so that it's 4 years after Sozin's Comet instead of 1, and also I'm going to conveniently ignore Mai breaking up with Zuko in that comic (because come on, we all know she's coming back anyway :P)**


	2. Ch 1: The Avatar and the Firelord, pt 1

**Chapter 1: The Avatar and The Firelord**

**part 1**

Zuko was fairly certain that he was dying.

The time keeping candles that Teo's father had gifted to him said that he had only been listening to the Earth King and his delegates drone on for about two hours, but it felt closer to two years. He knew why this was necessary. The Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom had recently come to the brink of another war over what was to be done about the Fire Nation colonies. Kuei had wanted all the borders restored to the way they were before Sozin's invasion, but Zuko recognized that some families had been in those colonies for three or more generations, and he couldn't just uproot these people. Luckily Aang had managed to intervene before things got bloody, but that still left the question about what to do with the colonies. And that meant that he had to politely listen to all of the Earth King's ideas about what to do going forward.

This, admittedly, wouldn't be a big deal, if the Earth King just knew what the hell he was talking about.

After the fall of Ba Sing Se, Kuei had apparently decided to travel the world to make up for the fact that he had been sheltered in the palace his whole life. But it was obvious to Zuko that spending 3 months as a poor man had not suddenly changed him into a wizened guru. Every time Kuei started talking about his self-proclaimed deep knowledge about how his people lived and thought and what they wanted, Zuko had to keep himself from pointing out that  _he_  had seen far more of the Earth Kingdom than Kuei had. Even worse was his entourage of councilors and generals: Hu, Mi, Yu, Wi, and a whole bunch of other names that sounded like baby talk. Zuko guessed that Kuei didn't want another Long Feng by his side, so he wanted to be surrounded by people who were even more incompetent and idiotic than he was, which unfortunately was quite an accomplishment.

The candles on the edge of the room popped 7 times, indicating they had been there for three long hours. Zuko figured that, while it would be rude to cut the meeting short, it would probably be considered ruder if he had an impromptu Bar-B-Kuei. He was weighing the pros and cons of each when the door behind him opened. He turned around to see Mai standing in the doorway with a look in her eyes that spoke of barely restrained panic. The babbling stopped as Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom turned to look at her.

"Zuk—I mean, my lord, you must come immediately; there has been an incident at The Asylum."

_Azula_

Trying to stay calm, Zuko stood and bowed to his advisors and guests, "Gentlemen, excuse me, but this matter needs my attention." He walked briskly past Mai as she shut the door, feeling a mixture of fear, gratitude towards Azula, and guilt about said gratitude. Once they were through the door he turned to Mai.

"What happened? Azula—"

"Didn't do anything, you idiot," Mai said with a roll of her eyes. But Zuko saw the corner of her mouth raise a bit. Anyone else would have missed it, but to Zuko she might as well have been grinning ear to ear. "I just knew you wouldn't have the backbone to get out of there when enough was enough."

It was Zuko's turn to smile, "You can hardly blame me, though. That was quite the performance. You could take up a life at the Ember Island theater. I knew there was a reason I asked you to marry me."

And before he could respond, Mai had him pinned to one of the hallway's walls with an evil look in her eye, "Oh,  _that's_  why you're marrying me? Can't think of anything else?" She brought her hand to the back of his head and kissed him, long, deep, and passionate, all while digging her nails into his scalp and pulling on his hair.

He grunted and pushed her back with a laugh, "You know there's got to be a way to kiss me without causing me physical pain."

Mai just raised an eyebrow, "Well yeah, there probably is, but why would I want to? Anyway, you really do have a reason to leave. Aang and the rest are waiting for you at the  _hotel._ " She said the last word very accusingly.

"Hey, you know why I can't let them stay in the palace. Last time they stayed here, Toph caused so many earthquakes people thought the volcano was erupting, Sokka nearly burned his face off trying to figure out how the heating system worked, and Aang 'liberated' all of the animals in the kitchens right before a diplomatic feast!"

"Well," she chuckled, "looks like you're in for a good time tonight, then."

As they finally got to their bedroom—well, officially, it was  _Zuko's_  bedroom—her face became more serious, " _please_  try to have a good time. You're killing yourself. And you need your friends to keep you from doing stupid things, like almost starting another war."

He took her hand and forced himself to smile, "I promise, Mai. I guess it wouldn't be as bad if all my friends didn't act as children."

Mai suddenly became very uncomfortable, "Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing," she mumbled while looking away and…..was she  _blushing_? Zuko could count on one hand the times he had seen her _blush._

"Maybe it can be good to learn how to deal with kids. You know…just to have the skill set?"

Why was she being so vague? Mai was the most direct, no-nonsense person he knew.

"Mai, what's this about?"

"You  _idiot,_ " She grabbed his collar and looked into his eyes. " _for future reference._ "

Zuko's mouth went dry and his insides felt like they were being bloodbended.

"Mai….you don't mean—" He was interrupted by Mai tackle-hug-kissing him. He wasn't sure if there was a word for all that. He was too dazed to form a coherent sentence.

"Bu…wha…. _HOW?"_

Mai gave him her I-can't-believe-you're-actually-that-stupid face, "What do you want, a play-by-play? You were kind of there, you should know how."

Now that his brain had started to function semi-normally again, Zuko just smiled a dopier smile than Mai ever thought he was capable of, "I've got to tell Aang. I've got to tell Katara, I've got to tell everyone!"

Mai shoved a hand over his mouth, "You really are an idiot aren't you?" she hissed, "We can't tell anyone yet! Katara knows already because I asked for her healing expertise, but you can't tell anyone else."

Zuko furrowed his brow, "Why the hell not?"

"Because we're not married yet. People are still questioning your leadership, now isn't the time to stain our honor."

Zuko groaned and rolled his eyes, "Mai, trust me on this, because I know it better than any person on the planet:  _honor is overrated._ "

"Please, for me?" She spoke the two words she  _knew_  he would do anything for. It was his own "Lake Laogai."

Zuko sighed, "I promise."

She kissed him, "I don't hate you."

"I don't hate you, too."

"Now get out of here and be immature for once in your life."

* * *

**Yes, another short chapter, but I prefer lots of short chapters to a few long ones, both when writing and reading. And I know this one was kind of boring and full of exposition, but I've got several storylines that I want to run concurrently when shit goes down, so I'm taking the time to set them up. The jokes will get rolling fast in the next few chapters. The next update may not be for a few days, I really only have time to write on the weekends, and this is a really heavy semester for me (I'm a senior in college for Aerospace Engineering) but next weekend should be the latest.**


End file.
